In the weeks-long news blitz about this winter’s bone-chilling, record-setting cold and snow, to include the tsunami-like effect of winter storms Maya and Nadia it has not escaped me that Major League Baseball spring training camps are opening this week.

While channel surfing, I noticed a countdown clock almost wound down behind a sportscaster. Then he spoke the magic words:

As a teenager I followed the national pastime, even after my family emigrated from Brooklyn to Athens, Greece.

This was decidedly not the Digital Age with its 24-7 global online streaming of every sports under the sun. You had to work to follow your team back home. So between subscriptions to U.S. magazines, sports news on Voice of America and games on Armed Forces Radio, I kept up with baseball hoopla even though I had settled in overseas as—what else?—a soccer player.

Still, in mid-February of 1975, on the day when pitchers and catchers reported to major league camps in the U.S., a bunch of guys at the American Community Schools of Athens decided to celebrate by playing some sandlot hardball.

The affair was spontaneous and well suited to a Mediterranean clime. While not balmy, it wasn’t New England, either. During lunch, we looted the gym for bats, gloves, and one baseball. A few of us freshmen bottom-feeders were asked along to fill out the teams.

With bases locked away, four boys skinned off their jackets and threw them around the diamond. No one wore protective gear; the two catchers didn’t have masks or helmets. With one infielder’s glove a glaring truant, we took turns from one batter to the next alternating who played the next out, between second base and shortstop, with bare hands.

The crew also had international flair. From my admittedly failing memory, I seem to recall our ranks including Jun from Japan, Kyung-duk from Korea, Julio from Venezuela, and Darko from Yugoslavia. (I’m still not sure I got those last two guys right).

Far removed from the bloated salaries and prima donnas of Major League Baseball, this sandlot troupe played for keeps.

While sandlot baseball has virtually died among kids in the U.S., Americans abroad play it as a reminder of home, as these Marines show in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2006. (Photo by US Marine Corps, released for unrestricted use in public domain)

We dove headfirst into second to take out covering infielders. We bowled over the catchers while trying to score. Our pitchers threw at batters’ heads to brush them back off the plate. We scraped forearms, skinned knees and ripped our already tattered jeans, leaving raspberries for our moms to treat that evening.

The only sounds were hardball chatter, manhood challenges, laughter, and the crack of a bat against our only ball, a scuffed up pellet unfit for long toss.

The game was tied, and when the bell rang at the end of lunch, no one left.

We had started an inning and were determined to finish. My team scored in the top of that frame, just as the sixth period bell tolled. Tom, a California-cool type whose passion was playing wide receiver, was on third. With one out, on the first pitch, he broke for home and Jun laid down a perfect suicide squeeze, giving us the lead.

I’ve watched big leaguers botch that play for years. We had no signs, no coaches, no strategy, no nothing. Just two teenagers who looked at each other over the third base line and knew what to do. Oh, and no millions of dollars for that gem.

As absentee slips from our sixth period classes headed to the principal’s office, my team trotted out to the field for the bottom of the inning.

Boy striking out in sandlot baseball game, Missouri, 1910. (Photo in public domain; unrestricted use allowed by MHS Open Access Policy)

With one on and two outs, I stood in right field as Scott stepped to the plate. Allegedly destined for a major college program in the U.S., he was a threat to send us packing. Darko, who had never seen a baseball in his life before attending our school, but had a howitzer for an arm, fired some heat high and tight.

On that first pitch, Scott took a Ruthian cut and launched a drive to deep right. I sprinted for the fence, screaming obscenities I can’t write here. As the ball sailed over me, I jumped at full speed, extended my body, and somehow snagged it before it was gone — then crashed into a fence post.

Crumpled on the ground but with the ball held firmly in my glove, raised like a submarine’s telescope above a sea of grass, I saw a blur of boys in the distance bounding up with lifted arms, and others slumping down with their hands on their knees. Then, within moments, both winners and losers ran out to the warning track and made a pig pile on top of me.

Eventually we dusted off and headed back to the gym to return the borrowed gear. There waiting for us was Mr. Hunt, the assistant principal. He stood with arms akimbo, glaring daggers (from under a Mets cap? I just don’t recall!), a stack of absentee reports in his shirt pocket.

About Telly Halkias

Award-winning freelance journalist from Portland's West End. Writes columns, features, and drama reviews for newspapers in Vermont, where he also owns a home, Massachusetts, New York and Maine.. Former weekend columnist at the now defunct Portland Sun. Longtime adjunct professor of college English/history/humanities. Has lived overseas for 15 years, and all over the U.S. Veteran. Small business owner. Published poet. ATCA drama critic. Loves all things outdoors, and Siberian huskies.

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Telly Halkias

Award-winning freelance journalist from Portland's West End. Writes columns, features, and drama reviews for newspapers in Vermont, where he also owns a home, Massachusetts, New York and Maine.. Former weekend columnist at the now defunct Portland Sun. Longtime adjunct professor of college English/history/humanities. Has lived overseas for 15 years, and all over the U.S. Veteran. Small business owner. Published poet. ATCA drama critic. Loves all things outdoors, and Siberian huskies.